Planting Churches among the City's Poor - Volume 1

P ART III: P LANTING U RBAN C HURCHES • 361

I. The Authoritative Tradition: The Apostles and the Prophets (The Holy Scriptures)

So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

~ The Apostle Paul (Ephesians 2.19-21)

Those who gave eyewitness testimony to the revelation and saving acts of Yahweh, first in Israel, and ultimately in Jesus Christ the Messiah. This testimony is binding for all people, at all times, and in all places. It is the authoritative tradition by which all subsequent tradition is judged.

II. The Great Tradition: The Ecumenical Councils and their Creeds*

* See Appendix, Defining the Great Tradition.

What has been believed everywhere, always, and by all.

~ Vincent of Lerins

The Great Tradition is the core dogma (doctrine) of the church. It represents the teaching of the Church as it has understood the Authoritative Tradition (the Holy Scriptures), and summarizes those essential truths that Christians of all ages have confessed and believed. To these doctrinal statements the whole church, (Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant)** gives its assent. The worship and theology of the church reflects this core dogma, which finds its summation and fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. From earliest times, Christians have expressed their devotion to God in its church calendar, a yearly pattern of worship which summarizes and reenacts the events of Christ’s life.

**Even the more radical wing of the Protestant reformation (Anabaptists) who were the most reluctant to embrace the creeds as dogmatic instruments of faith, did not disagree with the essential content found in them. “They assumed the Apostolic Creed – they called it ‘The Faith,’ Der Glaube, as did most people.” See John Howard Yoder, Preface to Theology: Christology and Theological Method , (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2002), pp. 222-223.